AmaZulu appoint ’draw specialist’ Brandon Truter as interim coach

FILE - Former Swallows FC boss, Brandon Truter, has been appointed as AmaZulu interim coach until the end of the season following the sacking of Benni McCarthy. Photo: Gerhard Duraan/BackpagePix

FILE - Former Swallows FC boss, Brandon Truter, has been appointed as AmaZulu interim coach until the end of the season following the sacking of Benni McCarthy. Photo: Gerhard Duraan/BackpagePix

Published Mar 27, 2022

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Durban — AmaZulu have appointed Brandon Truter as their interim manager until the end of the season. The Durban based club confirmed the appointment in a statement on Sunday afternoon.

IOL Sport had been informed earlier on Sunday by a source within the club that Benni McCarthy’s former assistant coach Vasili Manousakis was set to be the interim coach but it appears that this arrangement had changed.

Truter was last on the books of Swallows before being sacked in November. Interestingly, this move sees the coach dubbed a “draw specialist” taking charge of an AmaZulu side which has the most draws this season out of any side in the South African top division (14).

Usuthu were left without a full-time coach on Friday after they announced that they sacked McCarthy after 14 months.

“AmaZulu is pleased to announce the appointment of Brandon Truter as interim head coach with immediate effect until the end of the current 2021/22 season.

“We look forward to competing in the league with the remaining 7 games left,” said the statement released by the Durban based club.

The statement did add that AmaZulu expect to confirm the appointment of a new full-time coach before the end of April.

Truter’s first assignment in charge of AmaZulu will be their final CAF Champions League group stage game against Horoya in Guinea on Friday night.

AmaZulu’s can technically usurp ES Setif and progress to the knockout stages of the Champions League but will need to beat Horoya while relying on Raja Casablanca to beat Setif.

In all likelihood, their game against Horoya will be a dead rubber.

Truter inherits a side which is ninth in the league with 29 points after 23 games. His first assignment in the league is set to be an away trip to Baroka FC on Wednesday, 6 April.

There is no doubt that AmaZulu will be aiming for nothing less than a top eight league finish this season which will earn them qualification to the MTN 8 tournament next season.

While they have been out of form in the league this season, that has been the case for most teams bar Mamelodi Sundowns in the South African top-flight. A late season sequence of wins for Usuthu could still potentially see them finish in the top four which was Chairman Sandile Zungu’s target for this season.

@eshlinv

IOL Sport